Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/197

 CHAPTER XIII.

ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA.

Starting southward down the coast of Hudson Bay on the 13th of September, with the weather beautifully calm, we made a capital run past a rocky coast, skirted by a succession of shoals and reefs, and at night camped upon the shore about twelve miles north of Marble Island, whose snow-white hills of quartzite could be distinctly seen on the horizon.

Marble Island—so called because of the resemblance its rounded glaciated rocky hills bear to white marble—is well-known as a wintering station for New England whalers. Its geographical position was determined in 1885 and 1886 by Commander Gordon, of the Dominion Government Hudson Bay Expedition, of which the writer was a member, so we were glad to avail ourselves of the opportunity of connecting our survey with so well-fixed a landmark.

We had been informed by the Eskimos that there were no whalers now at the island, and we satisfied ourselves of the truth of their report by the use of our long-range binoculars. Had there been we would have endeavored to arrange with one of them to take us down to Churchill, but in their absence we could only stick to the canoes. Near camp, on the shore, we found part of